LTE: Expand use of carbon prices

The letter below was submitted to The Economist on May 30.

Bill Allen    06-07-20

In your May 23 article “The world urgently needs to expand its use of carbon prices”  the writer described several past and present proposals for doing this, including carbon fee and dividend.  The article didn’t mention a carbon fee and dividend bill that is actually in the US House called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.  The bill is HR 763.  It has 80 co-sponsors.

The bill contains a schedule of fees on fossil fuels based on the greenhouse gas emissions produced when the fuels are burned.  Fees will start at $15 per metric ton of CO2 and rise by $10 each year until emissions are reduced by 90% in about 2050.  Fees will grow to $105 per ton in Year 10 and to $255 in Year 25.

Fee revenue is divided into equal shares and returned to the private sector as dividends, one share to every adult, one half share to every child.

We believe that the steadily rising dividends will build a strong constituency for the program, and will energize inventors and members of the business community to help us all reduce our carbon footprints.